Archive for the ‘Wintergrasp’ Category

Gavelier of Stormwind

GavOfStormwind I’m now officially Gavelier of Stormwind, exalted  champion for Stormwind in the Argent Tournament. I have a squire now, for god knows why, and I have the title to display to everyone now. That’s a good thing, I guess. My main goal is to nab a slew more Champion’s Seals to get a Claymore of the Prophet. In my battle with a champion to reach this rank, I started with no Defends stacked (apparently it’s timed and I took too long between firing them up and starting the battle), and quickly fell to a 48% HP to 88% HP hole. I fought back, though, and won with 13% HP left. Yes! You may notice my bright blue belt in this picture. It’s my new Icebane Girdle I picked up at the auction house a while back. It kinda stands out, huh? Oh, and with all of my battles in Wintergrasp, I bought a Deadly Gladiator’s Cloak of Victory at the Champion’s Hall in Stormwind for about 38k honor points. Speaking of Wintergrasp…

The other night I queued with the masses at the portal’s location in Dalaran to go assault WG. I got the last spot in the first raid, so figured I’d be in good shape, right? Well, the match started, and there was no portal. A minute passed, no portal. Finally, someone called out, “WE ARE NOW AN AIRFORCE! EVERYONE FLY IN!”. And so we did. We flew to the flight point on the eastern edge of the zone and began the attack. However, it seemed that we were to have all night to win. The timer broke as well, reading 00:00 instead of counting down. We quickly stormed up the gut of the fortress with little resistance and captured it in no time. I never died and nabbed about three killing blows – one of a troll who sat on his horse while I kicked his butt. He never responded, so i figured he didn’t care. lol A Tauren Warrior and I squared off head-to-head, and he almost won but I managed to bubble and heal, which caused him to look for new prey. So, another win, and an unorthodox one at that. Alliance FTW!

Gavelier in the Sky with Diamonds

GavAndHisDiamond Now that I’ve got my WoW account back, what do you think I did first? … Boy, you’re getting good at this! I’ve taken to Wintergrasp twice since getting my account back this morning. The first was a defensive slaughter. We stood no chance at all. The second match was a slugfest, but that’s not the interesting part. If that were all, it wouldn’t be worth posting here! No, as you can see in the picture, I got a diamond marker for this match.

Now WTF is that supposed to mean? Is it like a ‘team captain’ mark? Or ‘this player is bound to die allot, so take care protecting them?’ Maybe the raid leader was goofing around and the match started before he was set on who got a mark, and it just wasn’t important enough to futz with mid-match. The latter is most likely the case, but I like to think of it as the RL designating me a lead player for others to follow. lmao

For my part, I did extremely well. I nabbed more killing blows this match then in any before. I also took on two or more Hordies multiple times, dying only once in those scenarios. Maybe it was a pride thing; like I refused to look bad with this diamond over my head making everyone watch me. Whatever it was, it was fun.

After the first match, I was actually ready to quit WG. I was sick of the Horde nabbing near double-digit Tenacity every single match, making them nearly impossible to kill alone. They’d wipe us out with aplomb with massive crits and insurmountable HP numbers. This time, they only had Tenacity of x3, so it was manageable.

lol I just looked up the average use of the diamond in instances, and it usually is for a mob to be ‘banished or otherwise CC’d’ Damn. Was I supposed to go away? Who knows…

Alliance Loses Wintergrasp, Takes it Back with a Vengence

I was in two Wintergrasp matches today, one defensive and one offensive. The defensive one didn’t go so well. We lost, but more importantly I died over and over. I nabbed a number of kills but nothing to talk about. What amazed me was my more recent assault run I was on. Here’s how it went down.

I was in Dun Morogh nabbing eggs for my Noblegarden achievements when I got notified by my guild leader, who was on one of his alts, that Wintergrasp had just started and to come if I wanted to join. I got there in no time and… we won. That’s it. I was no sooner there then we won. It had to be the fastest match I’d ever seen, and not just because I came late. I saw we only had six tanks, but apparently that was enough. What, did the Horde sleep through this match? Obviously they didn’t, because in the minute or two between arriving and winning I got stunned and killed once by an undead rogue, and again by a Tauren warrior. I got one kill, but dying twice as much as I kill sucks. But, we won… and that’s what I go there for. Death to the Horde! lol

Life at 80

I wanted to make some statements about my career as Gavelier and this blog. No, neither is coming to an end. I just want to thank those that have read my exploits from level 48 on Oct. 4, 2008 to today. I’ve gone seven months and 32 levels with everyone, and I have loved it so much.  I know this sounds like a resignation speech or something, but it’s not. I just feel that this is an appropriate time to thank everyone. With the sobby stuff out of the way, let’s get to what I’ve been up to since hitting 80.

Can you guess where one of my first stops was at 80? No? C’mon… you knew I had to hit up Wintergrasp again, right? The Alliance was on the attack, and what an attack it was. I dealt killing blows to many of the Horde as we swept in and took the fort with no resistance. As I say in raid chat after each successful match, “Hell yeah!”. I never died, and I was able to kill with aplomb, seeing as how my DPS was now over 1.35k (in mostly quest gear; no dungeon drops or PvP stuff at all), from the 800 or so it was while prot. I need some new gear (badly), but it looks like I’m in good shape to tackle whatever the game tosses my way, skill-wise. Look out world, here comes Gavelier!

BTW, my guild was very nice and complimentary about my hitting the level cap. I got lots of ‘gratz’ and the like, but my favorite comment came when I got my dual specs. One dude said, “gratz, and screw you.” lol He was saving up to do that, but I beat him to it. That’s the kind of guild I’m in. We’re a little odd, but that’s ok. I mean, we are Savagely Dysfuntional, right? I thought so.

Wintergrasp Again?!

Wintergrasp. Again. I don’t know what my fascination is with that place. I just enjoy it so much! Anyway, we were defending in my latest match. I learned early on that I was able to solo level 80s at last. I took on a couple at full health and leveled them. At one point, a dwarf paladin just stood next to me as I dueled a troll hunter. What, was I a side show?  He did heal me after the fight, though, which was nice. At one point I was pounding on a blood elf death knight and had her almost dead when she healed up a good bit and cast Army of the Dead on me. No matter; I finished her off, which dismissed the extra undead. I also rode gunner on a Siege Engine for a while. At one point I was double teamed, but managed to finish off one of ‘em before finally being felled. I got more killing blows this match then ever before. This was partly because I realized something about my low DPS that I could fix (more on this later), but also due to my higher HP (I had 22k+ HP, raid buffs considered) and judicious use of bandages, heals and my bubble. I did try to use exorcism a couple of times out of habit, but naturally it was to no avail. We held tight for most of the match, but the Horde broke into the final section of the fort with about five or so minutes remaining. It was close, with them getting the interior keep’s door half down, but we captured all of the towers first, claiming another victory for the Alliance.

About my low DPS, I had been using Seal of Justice as my prot seal of choice for it’s stunning ability, but hadn’t factored in it’s effect on my damage output. I recently switched to Seal of Command (yeah, I’ve gotten that deep into the ret tree while prot) and I’m back up to around 1000 DPS from 600. I would use Seal of the Martyr but without Art of War’s ability to give me quick and easy heals, I run out of health too fast.

Flying My Ride and Fishing in Wintergrasp

I forgot to post this yesterday, but I hit 1000g yesterday morning and bought cold weather flying, so the ol’ Rattle Bucket is back in the air! Blizzard actually made these things more obnoxious in patch 3.1, changing the sounds to be even more grating. Smooth move, Blizz. In other random news, I was doing a fishing daily (which happened to be in Lake Wintergrasp) with about ten other Alliance players when the Horde showed up. They didn’t attack us at first, just standing around taunting and posing. A hunter for our side opened things up, taking the first shot at a Tauren warrior on a Mechano-hog, which drew two Blood Elves out of hiding. A quick scrum ensued, with us killing the BEs and the Tauren running for the hills. We promptly went back to fishing, and I caught the 10 Terrorfish I was there for. I didn’t net much outstanding in the Bag of Fishing Treasures, just more Deviate Fish and Pygmy Oil. Later, all.

Those Tenacious Horde

I was in Wintergrasp this morning, and besides learning that I was now able to collect the quests for Stone Keeper’s Shards, I learned what it’s like to be on the wrong end of Tenacity. The Horde had it stacked 9x, and it was a bear. I was getting one-shotted by mages, a Blood Elf paladin was holding a workshop by himself, and everyone was being slaughtered. We couldn’t kill enough Horde to get bigger tanks like Siege Engines and Demolishers because there weren’t enough Horde to kill, and those that were there were insanely overpowered. Once we had the big guns (mostly from killing the easy-to-kill Horde guard NPCs roaming around in the open), though, it was on and we took out both side walls to the keep. In the end push, with under five minutes remaining, I drove a siege engine into the keep and helped break down the final wall. We won, but I was far from safe. During the scrum at the wall my tank was destroyed and I was set upon by both Tactical Office Kilrath and Commander Dardosh at the same time. Two lvl. 80 elites at once!! People just walked past me like I wasn’t in peril or anything… just another day at the office. One fresh level 78 against two level 80 elites. Yup, nothing unfair there. The funny part? I didn’t die. lol I didn’t kill them, obviously, but I lived long enough to get out of their aggro range. It took all my mana (spent casting Flash of Light over and over, interspersed with an occasional Holy Light)  my Divine Shield and my Lay on Hands spell, but I lived. Yes! That was my biggest victory of the day. In a day where I killed Artruis the SOB, hit level 78 and beat the Horde at Wintergrasp while they were hugely buffed, living to tell the tale was my biggest success. And isn’t surviving what it’s all about?

Daily Update and a Thank You to Shadowsite

Today was an interesting day. I returned to Wintergrasp, and died four or five times while defending the keep. Once, I had four Hordies hitting me at once, so I had no chance at survival. At another point, I was attacking a Tauren (who was being aided by two Warsong Champions, NPCs I’d never heard of before) when an Orc chick rode up, also engaging me in battle. I had the Tauren down to almost 30% health, but with the Warsong Champions and the Orc chick, I was screwed. Or, so I thought. I’d like to give a shout out to Shadowsite, a human rogue who came to my rescue. With her help, they were all killed and I lived. Yay! We also protected the keep successfully, winning another round.

Later I was riding out to Goldshire (duel central for Alliance characters) to meet with some guildies. As I left Stormwind, a level 63 Night Elf Deathknight challenged me to a duel. I agreed, stunned the hell out of him and beat him. He never got to fight back. Kinda cheap, but he’d do the same for me if he had the chance. The 14 level difference was the big deciding factor. I couldn’t have stunned him so bad if he were level 70 or higher.

Gav Returns to Wintergrasp, Shows it What-For

In my first trip to Wintergrasp in two levels, I helped try and defend the keep from the Horde. I died twice but had six killing blows, leading to a 3-1 kill-to-death ratio. Not bad, but it was just a warm-up.

Tonight I ran a quick quest through the Scarlet Monastery, getting stuck there during a server hang. I was unable to interact with anything, and could walk straight through the warp wall. It was frustrating. Anyway, I was on my way back to Ironforge when I saw there were 5 minutes to the next Wintergrasp battle. I hearth stoned to Dalaran and joined the raid. In this battle, I killed 13 Horde and never died. Heck yeah! I stunned the Horde and killed them. It took a while to kill anyone, but with them stunned, they weren’t much of a threat. The game was also lagging like crazy, which could have contributed to my success. I chugged three Runic Healing Potions and a Super Rejuvenation Potion and went through two bandages, but I lived. With a 13-0 KtD ratio, it was my best match to date. Overall, we swept into the keep and took it with little resistance. I nabbed a handful more Wintergrasp Marks of Honor and traded them for a Wintergrasp Commendation, netting me another 2000 honor points. I also hit 500 honorable kills this match.

The Raid, Pre-Battle

I think I like Lake Wintergrasp.

Wintergrasp 3: To the Death!!

I returned to Lake Wintergrasp this evening. No, this wasn’t like my half-hazard return to Stratholme where I can’t really explain how it happened. I hearthed to Dalaran with under eight minutes to go before the Alliance was to defend the fort, but was quickly booted from the server. I logged back in, and by the time I got control of Gav, there was less then 30 seconds remaining. I ran like a bat out o’ hell to the portal, popped through, and prepared myself. I had bought a Flask of Endless Rage earlier, so I quaffed that, and buffed myself up. However, there was a sucky raid administration running the gig. Something like five minutes passed before I was able to secure an invite. In fact, no one was getting their invite requests answered. It made the first half of the battle very, vey sloppy, with no coordination. However, once the raid was intact, we put up one hell of a fight.

When I first got there, I first went around, hitting folks with my buffs and healing where necessary. When a wall fell, I went out and attacked a steam catapult. Bad frickin’ idea. I didn’t die, but it was damn close. I finished off one blood elf paladin who was already hurt, netting me a solo kill. Later, a troll warrior squared off with me, one on one, and although I stood my ground well (for having a five level disadvantage), I finally died. Once respawned I zipped back down to the gates, where the raid was finally coming together and I got my invite. Yay! Now buffed and ready, I was game to be aggressive.

I attacked whatever hordies came through the gates, healed some allies, and got another killing blow. I also blew up two siege engines with my Hammer of Wrath. In a strange anecdote, I once tab-targetted Blueyes, the blood elf paladin I had helped kill outside Stormwind, but wasn’t able to see him or close in to do battle. Anyway, around about the 10 minute mark, it seemed that we were driving them back. We were going to win! However, the Horde was simply re-routing their forces to the other side of the fortress, and with us chasing them instead of defending the fort, they had little resistance getting inside the walls. We fought hard, though, pushing them back out for a while. Finally, however, they were simply too much and they finally captured the fort with under five minutes left. Afterwards, I was attacked by a tauren warrior I’d fought earlier in the battle, but he was yanked away by a death knight, saving me. In a fitting closure, however, I was sought out in the post-battle scrum by the blood elf paladin I’d killed earlier, and we did battle in the now nigh-empty courtyard. It was touch-and-go for a while, with us exchanging judgements and seals, using all of our tricks to try and win. As he was finally overcoming me,  I backed  up into a newly spawned abomination (the horde’s guards), and was slain. Oh well. C’est la vie, no?

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